This morning we left a little earlier than planned as we were all up and ready so June walked Jimmy up to the first lock so that it was ready when the boats arrived. Just through the lock this boat had a nice sign to encourage boaters to slow down passed moored boats, it read “Please pass slowly Moorhens in residence”. We are normally asked to close lock gates behind us but these two at North Grove Lock did not want to stay shut as the wind blew them open again. Next we were passing under the M25 with its busy flow of traffic, at least it was moving, glad we were not on it though.
A little further on Graham radioed back to us to say that he had found the Lock Ness Monster and sure enough as we approached a bank of reeds we saw his head standing up above them. So why all the fuss up in Scotland when he is down here in Hemel Hempstead.
There were a few interesting boats on the run today; the top one had a VW car body attached to the cruiser stern to act as a covered Wheelhouse. The steering wheel was still in place but I could not be sure if they used that for actually steering. Apparently the mooring outside B & Q is popular for people fitting out their boats.
There were some nice gardens alongside the canal and just below Lock 65 at Frogmore End came a delicious smell of roasting coffee from the Smith’s Coffee Company Factory who had their door open onto the towpath.
As we approached the Apsley Locks we passed the Apsley Marina housed within a nice new development of shops and apartments. We moored on the offside immediately before Lock 66 on the Sainsbury Moorings and went into the store for our shopping. Another very convenient Supermarket for boaters. We then went above the lock to fill with water at the Sanitary Station.
We did another couple of locks and moored up just before the Fishery Inn at Boxmoor and a good job we did as just as we were having some lunch the heavens opened up for a few shorts minutes before the sun came again.
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